This invention relates to decoys for anti-ship missiles. In particular, this invention relates to a decoy continuously emitting an infrared (IR) plume from immediately after launch through the time it floats on the water.
Liquid fueled, IR radiating decoys have been used that produce an IR plume, or signature after they have been launched, entered the water, and floated back to the surface. Because these decoys do not produce an IR decoy plume immediately after launch, a finite time passes while the decoy is launched, flies through the air, impacts the water, sinks, and then is buoyed back to the surface before it begins to produce its decoying IR plume. Consequently, such decoys do not provide adequate ship protection because during the interval while the decoy is in the air and underwater, the ship is vulnerable to an incoming IR radiation-seeking anti-ship missile (ASM).
Some ASM decoy systems use activated metals to produce IR signatures immediately upon launch. However, these decoys create only short bursts of IR radiation that rapidly fade as the expelled metal diffuses in the air and/or the chemical reaction wanes. Since the activated metal IR radiating decoys do not produce a constant IR plume over a prolonged period, successive IR radiating decoys have to be launched in a properly spaced sequence while the ship is moving. A more serious consequence of using successive IR radiating decoys is that they may actually draw an ASM seeker back to the targeted ship after the IR cloud of a previous burst has already decoyed the missile away.
Thus, in accordance with this inventive concept, a need has been recognized in the state of the art for an ASM decoy emitting an IR plume immediately upon launch from a platform, during flight away from the platform, and later while floating on the surface of the water.